Hi everyone! I thought for the end of the year I’d go over my 2018 goals and top posts, as well as create my goals for 2019!

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I don’t normally do as many of these posts as I would like, often because I either don’t think to or because I don’t have space in my schedule as is! I only blog two times a week now, so sometimes it’s hard to fit what I want to write about in there.

But let’s get into the post, shall we?

2018 Blog Goals Review

Now I am writing this post about a week before the end of the year, but I don’t think the numbers will be that different, so that’s why I’m going to write on current numbers. (Original goals will be in bold, adjusted goals will be in italics.)

Reach 50,000 views in 2018. Reach 20,000 views in 2018.
Well neither of these happened, but I did reach 15,700 views this year! This is less than the 25,000 of 2017, and although it is a lot less, I can’t say I’m necessarily disappointed in it. I did make a lot of changes this year, such as blogging only 2x a week instead of 5x. My two best months were May and December, because of BirthMay and Blogmas respectively so clearly the views were driven by the number of posts rather than the actual content. I want to focus on the content for 2019 and really create a brand with my blog so I’m going to set a goal of 25,000 for 2019.
Also I did read a blog post recently that stated that the blogger didn’t take any blogs seriously if the blogger wasn’t self-hosted. I’m not sure if that is the case or not for why many people don’t always come back after finding my blog, but it did weigh on my mind. At first I thought the blogger writing the post was very full of herself (actually, I still think that) but maybe there are people out there who do think like that and therefore that could be a factor. Even if it is, I suspect that’s only a small portion of it. I think that most of it is because I write about so much different things and therefore not something that someone would be consistently interested in. I think the variety worked to my advantage when I wrote a lot posts, but now that I only do two posts a week and half of the month is recapping my month, I don’t think it’s working as well. It might be time to reconsider my posts!

Adjust my schedule as needed. In 2017 I was stressing to post 5 times a week in the second half of the year. Post 2 times a week for 2018.
I’m happy to say I did do this and it’s the perfect number for me right now! I think I’ll aim to continue to do 2 posts a week and maybe consider going to 3 after I’m done with school.

Post at least one video per month.
Well I did not reach this at all. I did do a few proper videos and then was doing my One Second A Day videos for awhile but stopped both of those. I’m not sure if I will go back to videos, so I’m going to leave this one off for a bit.

Revamp my blog.
Well this was very non-specific but I was talking about content. I did already talk a bit about it and re-branding so I’m going to continue to consider it, for now, I’m happy with the way things are so I’m going to leave this off too until I have a more specific idea.

Look into creating a subscription box!
Well I kind of did that! I did create one for a class project and I also did a Blogmas Advent Calendar where I pretended to put one together. I don’t think it’s quite the business for me, but it was fun to think about what I would put in one if I did start one.

Look into creating something. Maybe an ebook? Or some sort of printables? Sooooo many possibilities!
I didn’t actually do any of these so I’m going to reuse this for 2019!

Collaborate with other bloggers more!
I didn’t do a good job with this one at all! I’ll pass this along to next year and let me know if you’d be interested in a collab at some point!

And lastly I want to reach 4,000 followers! Reach 2,500 followers!
I did not reach either of these as I’m at a little over 1,700. That’s a lot but short of both of the goals! I think I’ll do a smaller number for 2019.

Top 10 Blog Posts for 2018

Here’s the top 10 blog posts I had in 2018 by views!

1. My Travel Make Up and Skin Care – I’ll have to update this one since it was such a hit!
2. My Mexico Trip Outfits – Should I perhaps redo this one as well?
3. 25 Get to Know Me Questions – This was a Tag Me Tuesday and perhaps this is due for an update as well sometime. Or at least a repost!
4. Disney/Pixar Coco Movie Review – This was a hit! Probably because I talked about this film and my review of it so much though!
5. Hello Blogmas! – My intro to Blogmas was also popular! How nice!
6. My Perfume Collection – Who would have thought collection posts are so fun to do? This was technically a 2017 post but apparently well viewed in 2018 as well.
7. If We Were Having Coffee – January 2018 – Also a 2017 post but for 2018 so it’s nice that it was appreciated!
8. If We Were Having Coffee – April 2018 – Good thing I’m continuing these coffee chats! You guys seem to really enjoy them!
9. My Fall Make Up and Skin Care Routine – I’m seeming a trend on the favorite posts here! Are you guys telling me you like my beauty posts???
10. My Fall 2018 FabFitFun Box & My Taylor Swift Reputation Stadium Tour Review – A tie! I love that one of my subscription box reviews and a concert review made it in! Clearly reviews also are appreciated here!

So there’s my top 10 (well, 11 with the tie) posts of the year. If you missed any of them you can click the links to each one!

My 2019 Blog Goals

Here are my blog goals for 2019! The first 5 don’t have explanations as they come from my 2018 goals but the rest will.

2019 Goal #1: Reach 25,000 views.

2019 Goal #2: Post 2x a week.

2019 Goal #3: Create a useful booklet or template to distribute.

2019 Goal #4: Collab with other bloggers.

2019 Goal #5: Reach 2,500 followers.

2019 Goal #6: Re-brand and focus on the content rather than the numbers.
I know at two previous goals are about the numbers but they’re not what I want to focus on!

2019 Goal #7: Try new video formats.
Instead of focusing on the number of videos I want to post I really want to experiment with the types of videos I try to do. That means I want to try vlogging or something new! I’ve done Q&As and a low-key story time so I really need to branch out.

2019 Goal #8: Do some blog maintenance.
This means get rid of blog posts that don’t need to be up anymore (some of the older ones that I don’t care for) and get rid of photos that aren’t needed anymore so I can get some more space back. I also want to rename my photos so I can find any useful older photos more easily. I also want to rename some of my categories to make them more useful to me now! For example, I recently changed my “Baking” category to be “Food & Drink” which is much more useful as I do talk more about all types of food and drink more often than I bake treats, but don’t want to separate them out as I don’t bake nearly as much as I used to.

2019 Goal #9: Promote my blog more widely.
I have stopped promoting my blog recently as much as I used to. I keep forgetting to update my Insta stories all the time with blog related items and stopped pinning my posts because the Pinterest app won’t let me create pins on my phone anymore (computer is find though, but my images are on my phone so I got lazy). I’m going to revamp my marketing calendar for my blog to try to continue to grow.

2019 Goal #10: Reconsider going self hosted.
This is only for after I’m done with school and if my re-brand seems to be working, otherwise I’ll stick to the (dot)com version of WordPress.

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So that’s my recap on 2018’s blog goals, my top 10 blog posts of 2018, and my new blog goals for 2019! Care to share one of your 2019 goals? Also, since I’m not posting separately for New Year’s, have a very Happy New Year everyone!

Thanks for reading!

Pamela Silva 

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